Anna Maria Horner Fat Quarter Quilt

Here is my latest quilt, based on a pattern by Eudaimonia Studio. It was a free pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics.

I made it with a pack of Anna Maria Horner fabric that I won in a giveaway. The look isn't really my thing, and the pack, all 22 fat quarters, sat around in my stash for a very long time until I found this pattern that really spoke to me. I used 16 of the quarters for the blocks and scraps for the binding. 

I sewed it back in the spring at my guild's spring retreat, and finally quilted it recently on my Janome with my favorite Quilters Dream Green batting and a yellow Aurifil thread. It came out cute, but it's not a keeper. One of my friends admired it and so I'm giving it to her tonight. She's put up with a lot from me over the years, so she should get a quilt.

Quilting Weekend

 I spent this past weekend quilting with some pals, and came up with this:

a Triple Barn Star Quilt. The pattern is by Missouri Star Quilt Company. You can buy the pattern here.

I used a scrap bag of Liberty fabric but the pattern is layer-cake friendly. It goes together very, very fast. I thought this quilt would take me all weekend to make and it did not. Now, at 72x72 inches it will take me a long time to quilt and finish but that is Future Marie's problem.                                                                                                                                           

Another Layer Cake Link Quilt

 

I made this quilt for a friend on Nantucket and gave it to her and her husband this past week.

The pattern is the Layer Cake Links and it's a free downloand from Fat Quarter Shop.

I did wavy walking foot quilting across the surface.

The backing consisted of a mermaid panel I got at a guild meeting from the giveaway table, and most of three additional yards of sea-themed fabric I had in my stash. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and my friends love it too!

Make and Mend!

 

Well I'm late to the party, again.

This weekend I was in Boston because reasons, and while I was there my husband and I visited a really cool new-to-me store, Make and Mend in Somerville, Mass.  They are a used-craft-supply store, like someone's giant destash or your dream craft room. They have supplies for all kinds of crafts- sewing, needlearts, scrapbooking, stamping, jewelry making, you name it, plus notebooks, stickers, pens, fun jewelry, all kinds of neat stuff.

Apparently they have been open in various forms since 2017 but I only heard about them last week. Luckily I did, and we were able to squeeze in a visit.

I bought more stuff than is pictured here but the other things were like weird stickers and jewelry items that I wasn't sure you would be interested in. I got the Gypsy Gripper, the purple thing on the left, for a mere $8, and a huge piece of what will be backing fabric for very cheap, and a fun notebook, and an adorable unicorn pin cushion, all for bargain prices.

Of course you never know what you will find but you will find everything and anything. Check them out!

End of the Guild Season

Well this past Saturday was the last meeting of my guild for the season. I had a good time at the meeting- I handed off a donation quilt and got rid of some fabric and tools from my sewing room as well. We have a "free table" at every meeting and members bring in fabric, notions and whatever for it. I usually get a pretty good haul of stuff and this month was no exception, but this month I had some good things to give away as well.

At the end of every guild year we make quilt blocks for departing Board members; we're assigned the patterns ahead of time and bring them to the final meeting.

This is one of the blocks and

this is the other; variations on the same pattern in different colorways. They were easy and fun to piece up and I got to use some scraps which is always good.

I got to show off the two things I've completed recently- the Crumb Stars and the unfinished top from the retreat. Here's a picture before I actually stitched it together:

I have a few other things to work on first but I'm hoping to get it quilted up before the fall. I'm planning to back it with some special fabric. More on that later.

The guild also introduced two challenges for the summer, neither of which I'm participating in. I did agree to take a round robin quilt home and quilt and finish it over the summer months, so that is my contribution to guild activities.

As always it was so great to see everyone and I had a great time. Cheers to our Board for doing such a terrific job for another year.

From Queen Size to Comfort Quilts

 So a while back I wrote about how I had a queen sized Double Irish chain quilt that I hated, and how glad I was to be able to pass it along to a guild friend who was going to quilt and finish it for charity.

 

 

 

 

Well here it is - or here they are, two of the three quilts she created from my original top. I could not be happier. They are off to their new homes or will be soon.

 Here's the label she made with my name and hers.  So great. Thank you Jody! You're the best.

Crumb Star Quilt Is Finally Done!

 

At long last, my Crumb Stars quilt is finally done!

I used the pattern August Stars from JayBird Quilts; if you visit the link you can see what it is "supposed" to look like. When I decided to make a crumb quilt it took me a while to settle on a pattern. I wanted something with a traditional block or star; I didn't want to do rectangles or strips or square blocks. I wanted to use the "made fabric" in a recognizable block and I settled on August Stars because I thought it would give me both complexity and simplicity.

I think it worked well! I'm really happy with it. Each star is made of six parallelograms and each parallelogram took about an hour each to make when I sewed them at home. I brought my scrap bag to last winter's retreat and was able to complete the 19 parallelograms I needed to finish the last row of the quilt in about six hours of sewing time. You really can get a lot done at retreats!

You can see what a block looks like by clicking here. A row is five blocks with left- and right- handed edge blocks.

Then I took my blocks home and finished the top and quilted it with Aurifil monofilament and my favorite Quilters Dream Green batting. I wish I had quilted it more heavily because of all the little seams in the stars, but I think it will be okay. The background fabric is a Japanese import I got at Britex Fabrics in San Francisco a few years ago. I only had a yard of it so I could not make the quilt any bigger than this. As it is I added an additional row on to the bottom of what is the smallest size in the pattern.

I used scrappy binding from my stash to finish it. Rather than cut off the jagged edges and bind straight edges I decided to bind the jagged edges with skills I learned doing partial-seam herringbones. After having spent the time I did making those scrappy parallelograms I did not want to cut off anything!

Retreat!

Last weekend was my guild's retreat; we have two per year, one in January and one usually in May.

This is a block from my project. The pattern is called Resilient; it's by Brooke Shankland of Eudaimonia Studio. I believe the pattern was a free download from Art Gallery Fabrics. Eudaimonia's website is EudaimoniaStudio.com and you can find them on Instagram at @EudaimoniaStudioUS.

The fabric is from a 22-fat quarter pack of Anna Maria Horner fabrics I won at a giveaway a couple of years ago. I used 16 of the fats for the blocks; I'll use another for the binding along with scraps leftover from the blocks.

I finished 12 of the 16 blocks during the retreat and I have two more to go now. 

I'm happy with how it's coming out. I think the fabric is a great fit for the pattern and I can't wait to get the whole thing pieced up. It's going to be about 52 inches square when done.

Another Outfit for Eugenie

 

If you know me IRL you know that I am obsessed with Hill House Home and their signature garment, the Nap Dress, which is basically a tiered midi dress with ruffled straps. I own waaaaaay too many of these dresses, as my husband will agree no doubt. 

I buy most of them new but I have had occasion to shop Poshmark for the odd out-of-print dress and once when I was on Posh I found that someone was selling a tier from her dress that she had removed to make it the right length for her (presumably she was shorter than 5'3" or so, which is the point at which these dresses would start to drag on the ground). I don't actually own a Nap Dress in this print, but I bought the tier because it was very cheap and because I thought I could make a dress for Eugenie out of it.

(The print is no longer available new and the used dresses are kind of out of my budget. People tend to price them like collectables rather than like used clothing.)

The tier was about the right size for a tunic sized top made out of the Rose pattern which I've used before for dresses for my girl.  You can't see this in the photo but I used scallop shell buttons made out of coconut to close it at the shoulders. 

I think she looks cute and all ready for summer!